


This is Me Being Me

by simplememories



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Gen, Goode High School (Percy Jackson), Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26364166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplememories/pseuds/simplememories
Summary: The blonde girl slipped through the door and smiled pitifully at the teacher. “Sorry, we’re late, I just had to show a new student around.”The teacher nodded understandingly, “I was just about to introduce myself--” he frowned. “We?”The door slammed open, hitting the wall adjacent to it, opposed to how Kayla had just slid silently into the classroom. The classroom spun a little as Benjy stared at the person standing in the doorway and... what? He took a moment to squint because there was no way that was-- holy shit it was.Because standing there, from the pair of his faded pink Converse shoes to his ruffled black hair was Percy fucking Jackson.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 13
Kudos: 153





	1. Good to Be Back at Goode

“See you!” Annabeth pecked Percy’s cheek.

  
  
Percy pouted. “Are you just going to leave me for the wolves?”

  
  
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly, “C’mon Seaweed Brain, I don’t think Lupa would appreciate that. Pretty sure she hates me too and I wouldn’t do that to you. Anyways, Goode shouldn’t be _that_ bad.” Annabeth sat up on the hood of the beaten up Prius, golden curls bouncing along her back as she did so. “And if it is… well, you could always try Midtown.”

They held each other’s gaze for a moment or two before collapsing into laughter. Midtown was a prestigious high school, smack dab in the middle of Manhattan, practically full of a bunch of nerdy rich kids. No way he was going there, especially after attending Yancy Academy and his past school record. (He physically shuddered at the thought of sixth grade with its prepubescent preteens and constant voice cracks.)

“Just one year in hell and I’ll be out of there,” Percy huffed. “Just one year till New Rome…”

Annabeth smirked, “That’s the spirit! Just 180 days.” 

Percy groaned banging his head on the top of the car, “Kill me now.” Goode was that one school which actually sort of accepted Percy-- even if he had allegedly blown a part of their band room when fighting off a couple of _empousai._ (Kelli really was a pain in the but… she spelled her name with an _i_ instead of a _y_ . Who even did that? That was like spelling Percy with an i which would be Perci. Disgust rolled through his body whenever someone spelled his name like that. Yeah, that was right, he was looking at you _Starbucks_ .) His stepdad Paul, who worked at Goode as an English teacher, had managed to convince the school administration that he _didn’t_ blow up an entire room and he was just a normal kid who just happened to have a terrible school record and didn’t kill monsters in his spare time. Unfortunately for Percy, he had disappeared for a large remainder of last school year and had to play catch-up with Annabeth over the summer. Anyways, where was he? Oh right, wanting to die. 

“That could be arranged.”

  
  
Annabeth and Percy jumped, hands over their weapons. They relaxed their stances once they saw who it was. “Gods Piper, don’t do that!”

  
  
Piper bounced on the balls of her feet as she approached them, “Do you have time to talk about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?” Percy and Annabeth stared at her blankly. 

“Yes?” answered Percy unsurely because honestly, _why not_?

“Not you guys too,” she complained after taking in their bemused expressions. “I was just— oh forget it. All I had to say was that Leo’s hiding around here somewhere, so don’t be surprised when you find him hiding in your car hood or something.” She held out her hand for a fist bump which Annabeth happily complied with. “So what’s up with you guys? Where are you headed?”

“School,” Annabeth replied. “And this one,” she said, ruffling Percy’s hair, “doesn’t want to go.”

Percy pretended to faint dramatically behind Annabeth, falling back onto the car hood. “The nerve of me!”

“At least it’s not me,” Piper groaned, plopping down next to the blonde girl. “I’ve been kicked out of like four different schools.”

  
  
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “This idiot’s,” (with that she tilted her head gesturing to Percy), “been kicked out of one every year.” 

Percy wiggled his eyebrows, “Sup.” 

Piper made an impressed face. “You know what? I shouldn’t even be surprised at this point. How’d you do it?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know weather boy,” he smugly shot back at her. 

“Where are your parents?”

Piper and Percy stared at each other for a few moments before laughing it off. 

“At least someone here understands the concept of Vines. I swear Frank is the only one who…” She trailed off looking at Annabeth who was mouthing the word _cannon_. 

( _What?_ There was no way he actually...)

“A cannon?” exclaimed Piper incredulously, gaping at Percy. 

“Aw c’mon, you ruined it!” 

“Ruined what exactly?”

  
  
“The suspense, the rising actions! Where is your sense of drama?” 

“Someone’s been paying attention to Paul lately.”

  
  
Percy stuck his tongue out. “I have my moments.” 

Annabeth scrunched up her face (adorably, Percy added in his mind-- but if he said that out loud she would probably murder him in his sleep). “Seaweed Brain.”  
  


“Wise Girl.”

  
“Doofus.”

  
  
“You wound me!” Percy gasped dramatically.

“Alas,” Annabeth said dryly, getting off the hood to sling Percy’s backpack over her shoulder. “Pipes?”  
  


Piper, who had been watching, grinning (no, not because she thought they were cute, that was totally ridiculous-- it was all for blackmail later on), jolted into action. “Gotcha, yeah. Me and Leo--” she paused at Annabeth’s squint, “fine, Leo and _I_ , were headed to restock the camp supplies from the shop nearby.” She paused. “Alice’s,” she added as an afterthought. “We thought we’d just stop by the way to say hi. Wanna come with?” 

Annabeth looked at Percy, who was right next to her giving his best impression of a small baby seal, frowny face and all, practically begging for her not to go. Then she turned to Piper who was pouting just as seriously. “You two are ridiculous,” she sighed. “I’m going to go with Piper.”

  
  
The brunette’s face split into a large grin, “Ha! Take that!” 

Percy blew a raspberry at her, then turned back to Annabeth pouting again. 

Annabeth laughed, “I’m sorry. We’re meeting up at the cafe still, right?”

  
  
“Yep.” The son of Poseidon gave a sigh of defeat and shook his head and gave a mock bow to Piper who was grinning smugly. 

“You win this round. But I’ll win the next one.”

“Oh, I’m not sure about that.” Piper tackled a smiling Annabeth into a hug. “I give the best hugs.”

  
  
Annabeth cocked an eyebrow, “I’m sure Percy would like to argue with that fact.”

Percy nodded as confirmation. “A hundred percent reliable, Percy-full hug.” He flashed a fake salesman-smile, “No refunds given.” 

The grey-eyed teenager tossed his bag over to him, “See you soon Seaweed Brain!”

“Bye!” Percy raised his hand to wave back at Piper and Annabeth, who were now walking to the curb. 

He opened the door and got in the driver’s seat about to start the car when someone behind him shouted, “ _Boo!_ ” 

Percy shrieked loudly (later on he would deny such facts), jumping in his seat, Riptide ready in his hand. 

“Percy used Pout! It was not effective.” 

Leo Valdez was sitting in the back seat, all stretched out, fiddling with some sort of small drone in his hands. He grinned, “Was that a shriek I just heard?” 

Percy flushed. “Shut up Valdez.” 

“Ooh, no need to get touchy.” Leo kicked open the car door and got out. “Heya Pipes!” Percy turned back to see Annabeth holding back laughter and a snickering Piper. He flipped the finger at the Latino boy, before starting the car engine and hitting the pedal, yelling a quick goodbye, and driving off to Goode.

***

Like any proper highschooler attending Goode, Kayla Blumenthal was aware of two things: the hierarchy and the daily gossip. 

Kayla Blumenthal was a small girl, you probably wouldn’t notice her on the first day of school. Or the second. Or the third, or perhaps even by the fourth. But she commanded attention and sooner or later you would notice her. She was thin, but not reedy, had a couple of horn-rimmed glasses and shallow light green eyes. Typically a person of such small stature wouldn’t be noticed, but she was just attractive, in the ‘ _what can you do about it?_ ’ way. 

The first day of school was always a dreaded one for most. Reintroducing yourselves to teachers, starting coursework again, and the impending pop quizzes were always bothersome. So, Kayla Blumenthal has gotten out of bed, determined and full of energy.

(Well not that much— she was a teenager, what did you expect?)

She had raced past the door after grabbing a bagel to stuff into her mouth and pulling on a quick outfit. Maybe a dress wasn’t exactly conventional for the first day you might think, but the way she saw it, she was trying not to be as scared anymore— to stop running from the past. 

_Pull on the dress and everything will be fine_ , she thought repeatedly. _Everything will be fine. Just breathe._ As she focused on inhaling and exhaling, her gaze strayed to the forgotten makeup set on the counter. She breathed out with a huff and grabbed the lip gloss. “You can do this, just…” her words had sputtered to a stop as she turned around and looked in the mirror. 

Pale stringy hair was swinging loosely at the side of her face. _One, two. One, two, three. One, two. One, two, three._

( _Screaming, someone. Heart pounding. One, two. One, two, three. One, two— she needed_ **_someone_ ** _— where— more shouting. She— help—_ )

Kayla shuddered as she held the counter to steady herself. She took a shaky breath and leaned closer to the mirror, pushing away from the counter. Uncapping the lip gloss tube she slowly applied the lip gloss. _Slow steps_ , she reminded herself. 

She leaned back to observe her work. Her upper lip glinted in the light from the lamp near her and she closed her lips to rub the gloss onto the lower one. Good enough. Her eyes darted around her reflection, from the annoying zit near the top of her head to her form-fitting dress to her ankle socks. She wiggled her toes. “Okay. Okay. _Okay_. Let’s— let’s do this.” 

( **_Let’s do this._ **)

***

“Hello! Welcome to Goode!” 

Percy gave a tight smile to the secretary right up at the office. Did he realize he fit every stereotype for a secretary so far? “Hi there,” he offered, trying to muster up any excitement he had so far (zero to none). “I need my schedule. I’m kinda new so… yeah.” He tried not to wince as he awkwardly ended the statement.

The secretary nodded eagerly, “Great! What’s your name?” 

“Percy Jackson.”

The guy nodded eagerly again ( _what was up with that?_ ) and clicked a tab on his computer mouse. “Jackson, Jackson, Jackson,” he muttered under his breath. He squinted, his glasses almost falling down comically to the very tip of his nose. Weirdly enough, he seemed to be a little older than Percy… maybe in his early twenties? “Aha!” he exclaimed. “Jackson.” 

Percy waved, “Yeah that’s me.”

He nodded absentmindedly. “Aaand _print_.” The secretary clicked the screen with his mouse and glanced up at Percy and frowned at the screen. “Perseus is your first name?” 

The green-eyes boy gave a lopsided smile, “After the Greek myth.” 

The secretary _oh_ ed. “Like the guy who killed Medusa, right? The snake lady?” he asked while walking over to the printer which was slowly printing out his schedule.

Percy snorted. “Yep. The snake lady.” He thought back to Medusa, voice sickly sweet and crooning, begging for his twelve-year-old self to _come out, she didn’t want to hurt him, she only wanted to greet him, she only wanted to not feel alone, she only wanted to help, for him to open his eyes and see—_

“Perseus?” 

Percy jolted back to reality, whipping out Riptide from his pocket. For an awkward moment, the two of them didn’t move. The secretary looked at him oddly, with the sword grasped firmly in his hands, his hands itching to swing at something. “Well, I’m not sure what you’re planning to do with the pen, but you should pocket that for class, otherwise someone might steal it,” he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Percy flushed and put the ballpoint pen back into his jean pockets. The man handed his schedule to him. “There should be a student guide coming up this year. There’s always one to escort the new students,” he hesitated. “Or so they say… this is my first year working here,” he explained at Percy’s quizzical look. 

Percy gave a thumbs-up. “Cool! Uh…” he glanced at the door. The student guide didn’t look like they were coming out any time soon. “Good luck, man.” Percy winced at the pun, but the man took no notice. 

The secretary tilted his head at the computer screen. “Your name kinda sounds familiar actually…” Percy tensed, maybe the guy hadn’t heard of him from blowing up the band room the other year, but there was always the looming fact that he was considered a national terrorist for several weeks back when he was twelve. (He supposed he couldn’t exactly write that on his resume.) There was also always the possibility that he was a monster in disguise, but other than his weirdly peppy behavior, nothing else seemed to hint at that fact. The secretary shook his head and scrunched up his nose. “I’m probably just remembering things though…” his voice trailed off, leaving them two in awkward silence. Percy backed away from the desk to sit down on the wooden chairs lined up against the wall, fiddling with Riptide after taking it out of his pocket again. 

The secretary sat back in his chair, his energy gone, but still oddly reminiscent of Leo Valdez. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before the door to the office burst open.

They both jumped at the noise. The older of the two greeted the newcomer. “Hello, welcome to Goode!”

The first thing Percy noticed about the girl was that she was small. She was about as tall as the eleven-year-olds back at Camp. She had a backpack slinger over her left shoulder and was tapping her foot constantly on the tiled floors. She said hi to the secretary, her voice loud for her small stature and turned to face Percy. As soon as she glanced at him, she froze, shock on her face.

Confused, Percy just looked back at the secretary, who didn’t notice her freezing and started to talk about the schedule. Percy took the opportunity to introduce himself. “Hey, I’m Percy, I’m guessing you’re the student guide?”

Her eyes flickered upwards. “Sorry, what?”

“The tour guide.”

“That’s me,” she said. She snatched the schedule from his hands, scanning it. She looked down the rows of classes, ordered in small neat boxes. When she was done, she looked up, back at the secretary. “Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez.” Oh right, the nameplate. In his defense, it was stacked on a small pile of papers out of his view. 

“No problem!” the peppy secretary sat back in his desk chair. “Don’t forget to call the office when you have any problems.” She nodded absentmindedly before walking out the door with his schedule. Percy followed her unsure.

“I didn’t get your name?”

She looked back up at him like the teachers he had beforehand, right as they caught him getting in trouble. It was the face he had seen on guidance counselors and principals alike. “Kayla,” she replied shortly. She shouldered her bag and hugged the schedule to her chest.

_Okay then…_ “So where are we headed?” 

“ _I_ am heading to Latin,” she stopped glaring at him. “And _you_ ,” she emphasized, poking him in the chest, “are heading to…” she glanced down at the schedule, reading what was written in the top row. The girl glanced back up at Percy and pursed her lips, “... also Latin.”

Kayla started speed walking down the hall. “Follow me!” she snapped irritably. Did he miss something? Because he hadn’t remembered meeting her before. Unless she was part of the band and she was somehow offended because he had supposedly blown it up. Which was not his fault by the way— how was he supposed to know that Kelli could explode? 

He jogged up to the small girl, who seemed to have a personal vendetta against him. “Y’know I actually attended this school last year,” he said in an attempt to make small talk. “So it’s fine if you want to—”

The girl spun around and stopped in place again. Percy belatedly noticed one of her hands had been clenched in a fist the entire time. “I don’t _care_ if you already know your way through here,” she said angrily. “ _I_ ,” she stamped one of her feet to emphasize the point, “was assigned to show you to your first class so you might as well shut up and—” a huge shrill noise rang throughout the hallways. The bell. Right, that explained the empty hallways. Her eyes widened, “Shit, I’m late.”

“Actually _we’re_ late,” Percy corrected offhandedly, then widened his eyes, realizing what it meant. Oh gods, Annabeth was gonna murder him. On the first day? 

Kayla tightened her bag straps and smoothened the back of her dress down. “Okay, we have to take Stairwell C up to the fourth floor and the third door to the right will be the Latin classroom.” How in the world did she memorize that? 

She rolled her eyes and darted up through the double doors in front of them, labeled with a large painted white _C_. Percy followed her and caught the closing door she had pushed away. 

( _Up, up, up and away._ )

He jogged up the steps, two at a time, as Kayla sprinted up them, her long dress swishing around her ankles. Percy had had enough experience running from monsters chasing him and judging from the way Kayla ran up the steps, he would say she was pretty desperate to avoid him. What a great start to the year-- already late on the first day and the only student he had talked to so far hated him for some reason! Great.

***

The classroom was silent as the teacher walked into the room, papers collected in his hands. He was average height with a scruffy beard, collared shirt, and plain black hair. If Benjy had to guess, the guy was in his early thirties and relatively new (he would have heard otherwise). There were about a total of fifteen students cluttered in the language classroom. He took note that some people had dropped out from sophomore year. Understandable considering last year the school couldn’t have afforded a Latin teacher last year because the teacher who was scheduled to teach for Benjy’s junior class had disappeared at the start of the term and the Board of Education wasn’t able to find anybody new in time (complete bullshit, if Benjy had any say in the matter). He leaned forward in his seat as the teacher began to set up his desk. 

The door creaked open painfully (seriously, they needed to replace that) again as the teacher opened his mouth. Most students, pretty bored already, turned to see who the newcomer was. The first head peeked through the door, a small girl with pale hair. _Kayla Blumenthal_ , his mind supplied. Benjy remembered her older sister from when he was a freshman and he had of course heard what happened to her last year when she died. But he was completely sure she wasn’t a senior, maybe she was moved up a grade or two? 

The blonde girl slipped through the door and smiled pitifully at the teacher. “Sorry, we’re late, I just had to show a new student around.” 

The teacher nodded understandingly, “I was just about to introduce myself--” he frowned. “We?”

The door slammed open, hitting the wall adjacent to it, opposed to how Kayla had just slid silently into the classroom. The classroom spun a little as Benjy stared at the person standing in the doorway and... what? He took a moment to squint because there was no way that was-- holy _shit_ it was. 

Because standing there, from the pair of his faded pink Converse shoes to his ruffled black hair was Percy fucking Jackson.


	2. BEFORE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy Jackson does not show up for class after winter break. Benjy reacts appropriately.

_ Junior Year - After Winter Break _

Benjy frowned as he scanned the area for Percy. The other footballers were already heading inside, but he hung back. He was naturally tall so he was able to see over most people’s heads. He saw Rosa Nelson hanging out with Corey Lopez and his crew, Nancy Bobofit hanging off of Matt Sloan’s shoulder, and a swarm of freshmen trudging together through the front gates (they must have known each other from the middle school to already be so acquainted), but no Percy Jackson. He let out a sigh, he was probably going to show up late-- last year he had constantly slid in last-minute-- Benjy didn’t even know why he expected Percy to show up at… what was it? He pulled out his iPhone. 8:00. 

“Yo, Wang!” Benjy spun around. Dev. Right. “Yeah, hold on a minute!” Benjy looked for the green-eyed boy in the crowd, but he was nowhere to be found. He huffed and slung his backpack over his shoulder, already a bit loaded with some of the textbooks the teachers had assigned for the students over the break. Teachers didn’t even let students have a good Christmas! He had procrastinated all the work to the end of the break, yes, but that was it.

(He also might have turned in his history paper online at the last possible moment, but that was it— unless he had forgotten another homework. Senior year was supposed to be  _ easy. _ )

He strode to where Dev was waiting, on the top of the steps. The Indian boy raised his eyebrows, “Jackson show?”   
  
“Nope,” he said, “Percy’ll probably come in half-way through second period, just you wait.” 

Dev snorted. “More like fifth. By the way, did you hear about the teacher that resigned? Already half-way through the year. Guess he decided he didn’t like the place and ran.” The senior shoved his way past a cluster of giggling girls. “Can’t exactly blame him though.”

Benjy shrugged as they made their way past the clumps of people, to the school doors. “I mean I wouldn’t worry about it, doesn’t affect me, right?” he said absentmindedly, thinking about Percy and how he would be probably just waking up (with an adorable bed head).

The other boy smirked knowingly, “That’s the thing, man. The teacher that resigned? It was  _ your _ Latin teacher.” 

Benjy snapped his head around, “What?” 

Dev grinned, opening the front doors with a bang. “Doesn’t matter right, doesn’t affect me?” He shoved the other boy playfully, already jogging to meet his girlfriend.

“Jerk,” Benjy muttered under his breath, as he made his way to his locker. Mr. Walker hadn’t been the most exciting teacher of the year, but he was at least half-way decent. Latin was one of the things he wasn’t doing that badly in, besides English and Chem.

He shrugged off his football jacket, the name  _ Wang _ stitched on carefully on the back. Benjy faintly recalled Percy telling him about getting put on the waiting list for the AHS Swim Team, a prestigious swim team just a couple blocks down from his place. Benjy also recalled Percy bouncing on the balls of his feet while he told him about it, dimples showing as he grinned widely and exclaimed, “It’s a college swim team! It’s twenty-year-olds and plus!” looking really cute at the time which just made Benjy want to lean forward, kiss him, and then--  _ woah _ . Harmless crush was rather different then wanting to make out.

He wasn’t stupid. Goode was accepting of people of all sexualities, hell, Lily Pennyworth and Aisha Khan were making out in the corner of the hallway already ( _ already?! _ ) and it was just eight fucking o’clock in the morning,  **_but_ ** he wasn’t fully ready to come to terms with it considering what his parents thought of the topic back home--

( _ Study hard, get a job, move out, then tell them so they won’t be able to kick me out _ , was a repeated chant since the middle of sophomore year.)

\-- and it wasn’t like he was exactly out to any of his friends. Plus, the persistent and constant pounding in his heart whenever he was in Percy’s presence wasn’t exactly helpful. It was just another reminder of how he couldn’t confide to anybody about it.

Benjy hung the coat in his locker and grabbed his headphones from on top of the small divider Dev’s girlfriend, Marlene, had given him at the beginning of the year. 

She had taken one look at the mess of what he called his locker and shot Benjy _ why didn’t you fix this before _ look, before fully rearranging it, tossing all the crumpled papers in his face (karma, he guessed), and sticking a divider halfway through it. Why did she carry a spare divider in her bookbag?  _ Safety reasons _ , Marlene had replied. Dev had shot him a  _ duh _ look from behind as if it had been the obvious answer.

Benjy slid down to sit on the ground after closing his locker shut. He pushed his bag under his arm to lean on as he scrolled through his phone to pick up a playlist.  _ Yummy _ came on and he wrinkled his nose and swiped to the next song. After a moment’s pause to listen to the song, he relaxed his head against the lockers. Better. He hummed to the song for a minute or two before: 

“I need to get to my locker.”

The annoyed and frustrated voice broke through his thoughts. _ Oh yeah _ . Benjy internally groaned, gave the girl in front of him a tight smile and moved to the side for her to open her locker.  _ This _ was why he hated top lockers. As the girl got her stuff, he subconsciously sifted through the bustling crowd of highschoolers for Percy. As soon as he realized what he was doing, he mentally berated himself.  _ He’s probably just going to show up for the first period a bit late _ \-- but Benjy couldn’t help but have a bad feeling as twenty minutes passed and he got up to go to class, not a single Percy in sight. A bad feeling that something was going to go terribly, miserably wrong.

***

“Dev, I hate to be that one person, but… I told you so,” Benjy said while trudging through snow.

The taller boy raised his eyebrows, “And you weren’t the one that said,” he took a deep breath before raising his voice five octaves up: “‘Percy’s gonna come half-way through second period, just you wait.”

Benjy hit his friend over the head with the binder he was holding, all the while cursing his friend’s impeccable memory as they waited for the light across the street to become a walk sign. 

“Plus,” Dev added, “he’s probably just sick. It’s the flu season anyways.” Dev saw Benjy’s incredulous expression because even despite all the times Percy came to school late, he always came to school. On one of the last days of tenth grade (typically the hottest), Percy had come to school with 103-degree fever-- Mr. Blofis had to force him to the nurse because he kept on denying it. Benjy had later asked why he didn’t just go home like he was supposed to and he had shrugged and threw him a lopsided grin before dragging him to an ice-cream truck, which made him want to tear out his hair because he was concerned for the wellbeing of his friend, but on the other hand he looked so goddamn endearing.

Dev ran his hands through his hair, trying to find a way to convince his worried friend. “Look, did you see Nancy Bobofit? She sneezed her way out of English— already sick,” he reasoned. “But,” he added as an afterthought, “that could be from just making out with Sloan every five minutes— if I were her I would fake being sick too.” Benjy shot his friend a look which seemed to scream  _ exactly _ . The Indian teenager threw his hands up in exasperation. “The  _ point _ here is he’s probably just got the flu and there’s nothing to worry about.”

“But Emilia Blumenthal—” 

“That was last  _ summer _ .”

“Still.”

Dev sighed after a minute of silence. “Okay, you know what? Let’s just check with Ms. Jackson. He’s going to be there, it’ll be fine.”

Benjy bit his lip, debating his choices, but decided to drop the subject. “Fine. But can we hurry? The cold is killing me.”

Dev smiled,  _ Finally _ . “That’s what you get for wearing Sloan’s stupid football jacket, dumbass.” Matt Sloan had managed to fund the football team with his father’s money and get coats for the entire team as well as the coach (the suck-up). Benjy rolled his eyes and stepped out on the street, just to be bombarded by slush as a car zoomed by in front of him. He blinked, slush coating his face.  _ Yuck _ . He wiped it off after stepping back onto the sidewalk as Dev cackled behind him.  _ Idiot. _

***

_ Idiot! _ thought Benjy furiously. Percy was missing and Dev couldn’t see it! 

Ms. Jackson (Sally, she had insisted) had told the two boys that Percy was just out on a family-trip and that Mr. Blofis had already alerted the school administration that he was going to be gone for a while. Benjy, however, could not believe it, because one, Percy would have said something about it, and two, Ms. Jackson looked about as worried as Dev claimed Benjy was-- and that was saying something. There were bags under her eyes and when they had knocked, her hair had been frazzled and the cookie supplies in the kitchen were left untouched.

(Percy had claimed his mother loved to bake. Then said claim was proven when he had opened his bag and a dozen or so blue cookies were laying in a small Ziploc plastic bag.)

“Benjy,” the boy in question looked back up; Dev rarely used his first name. “Percy’s  _ fine _ , he’s with his relatives.” However, Dev actually looked concerned-- after a moment he realized he was concerned for Benjy, not Percy.  _ Oh _ . That was a weird feeling-- touching, but weird.

Benjy wringed his hands with frustration. Dev opened the apartment building door for him.“See the thing is--” Benjy’s words got cut off as he collided with another teenager. 

“Sorry,” she muttered, blowing her blonde hair out of her face, her breath visible in the frigid winter air. 

Benjy gave her a tight smile, “It’s fine.” They paused and looked at each other in the eyes for an awkward moment. Benjy took the moment to notice that she had a grey streak in her hair just like Percy’s… that was a funny coincidence. Then he unfroze. “Uh, sorry-- I’ll just--” He moved out of the way, to make way for her.

She blinked, then her eyes darted down to read his jacket, then back up at his face. “Thanks.” She darted past them and up the staircase, taking the steps two at a time. 

Dev snorted as he stepped out of the building and into the busy New York streets. “That was awkward. Anyways, what were you saying?”   
  
Benjy cleared his head to collect his thoughts. Benjy wasn’t sure if he should voice his thoughts-- Dev was more of Benjy’s friends than Percy’s, the two of them being on the football team together. Dev was more or less checking on Percy as a favor for Benjy, plus he was pretty sure the other teen had a date scheduled with Marlene at a fancy restaurant in twenty minutes or so he would be wasting his time. “It’s nothing.”    
  
Dev shot Benjy one more concerned look before changing the subject, which Benjy was partially grateful for. In turn, he spaced out for the next five minutes when they were walking to the train station. 

“Wang?”

The boy in question jumped, startled. Dev gave Benjy an unimpressed eyebrow raise. “Seriously?” Benjy tried an apologetic smile, which failed, because Dev pulled Benjy aside into the front of an alleyway. “I know you’re worried about Percy, but come on man, he’s at his relatives’ place! Why would Ms. Jackson lie?” 

Benjy bit back a retort.  _ Oh, I don’t know, maybe she panicked because her son is missing and she doesn’t want to freak us out? _ The other teenager took the silence as a confirmation of what he was saying. “See! And, hey… I know you’re worried, so… my place?”   
  
“Don’t you have a date with Marlene?” Benjy asked in confusion-- because it was nice and all, but he really didn’t want to intrude.

Dev sighed. “Oh Wang,” he said, exaggerating a sigh. “Restaurant is code for video games and Netflix. Did you really think we were that fancy?” 

Benjy stared at him in disbelief. “You mean all these times--”

“Yep.”

“... wow.”   
  
“I know,” Dev laughed as he cuffed him at the back of his head. “C’mon!” With that, the Indian teen took off down the subway stairs, holding onto the banister on the way down, in case of falling from the ice. Benjy took out his iPhone and glanced at the time. 3:30.  _ Dad wants you home as soon as possible _ , a voice in his head said, reprimanding him. He glanced down at his phone again.  _ Screw him _ , a rebellious part of him thought.

“You coming Wang?” 

“Right behind you!” 

And really, it couldn’t hurt, right? He glanced behind him, catching a glimpse of glowing red eyes in the darkness of the alleyway. Benjy blinked, startled, and they were gone. He shook himself, he was getting too worried about Percy-- was he really starting to imagine things? And with that, he took off down the staircase, phone in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello !!
> 
> hope y’all are doing fine in this mess of a year. school is starting so I can only hope for the best. stay safe <3

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, you may read this and be like, hm, this plot (and title) sounds familiar asides from the fact that people write mortals meet demigods all the time. Well, in this case, I wrote a terrible version of this last year on Wattpad, with messy characters and horrible dialogue & perspectives. So today, instead of studying for school like I'm supposed to be doing-- I have committed to this story and hopefully, I manage to write past 50K before the end of September.
> 
> (50K is a dream come true.)
> 
> So far, the only similarities between the first of chapter of this and the Wattpad one is that a character is named Kayla and she doesn't like Percy (which in this rewrite I've actually given a reason for her to avoid Percy).
> 
> And ouch, it physically pained me to write f-word.


End file.
